Normal

Absent

TW: Child abuse, Crying, Hospital mention, Cursing

One month one week until graduation

Monday has rolled around again, and Remus hasn't been in school since last Monday when he got in trouble with his parents. We left before his father came home, but I have a feeling that it didn't go well.

Everytime I've tried calling their house, his dad or mom has told me that he's busy, but he'll be at school today.

So, here I am, sitting in class early so that if Remus comes in early like he normally does, I'll get to speak to him.
Remy gets here first though, and looks surprised to see me. "You're here early."

"Y-Yeah. I-I'm wa-waiting to sp-speak to Remus when h-he gets h-here."

"Oh! I heard about him." He sets his bag down at the front of the room. "You remember Doctor Picani?"

I nod.

"He works at a hospital now, and he gave me a phone call to tell me that he had Remus as one of his patients. His dad said he fell down the stairs, but he told me he didn't buy it. Was really badly roughed-up aparently."

I gulp as I listen to him. I'm scared now. Is he okay?
Turns out I don't need to be scared for long, because Remus enters the classroom.

"Hey." He says with his usual attitude. He may not have had a change in his voice, but he's clearly in bad shape.
A large purple bruise has formed on his upper shoulder and neck, and there's a scab on the side of his lip as well as a black eye. That's a shame. His other one had just faded last week.
But, on top of all of this, his wrist is encased in a small brace that only hinders the moving of that joint, nothing too dramatic. That's for a broken wrist.

"Oh my God, Remus. Picani told me it was bad but-"

"I don't want to speak about it, okay? It doesn't matter, I just fell down the stairs." He sits harshly in his chair next to me. Dr Sleep stands up and crouches onto the floor by the desk, so that hes looking up to Re.

"Hey, it's gonna be okay."

Remus looks at him and breathes in shakily. Then he starts sobbing into his sleeve. Hard.

I feel bad. I complain about my life a lot, but he's clearly struggling here.

Remy grabs a peice of paper and quill, and writes on it, then places it on Miss' desk. "Right, both of you, cmon. We're gonna go to my office and have a chat because other kids will start arriving soon. I've left Miss Gladstone a note so she knows where we are."

Remus looks up with tear-filled eyes at me, and I nod. He stands up and we head to the office.

-----------------

"I want to get admitted to another hospital just to get away from that house and my stupid fucking brother. But I know that hospitals aren't much different."

Remy looks puzzled. "I thought you had a pretty good relationship with Roman. He'd always throw himself under the bus with you when I knew him."

Remus recounts the whole areguement they had, and towards the end he says something he shouldn't have.
"And then I- I went back into my room and Janus helped me clean up like he always does, and convinced me to ask my dad to take me to a hospital after looking at my wrist-"

I hit him on the arm gently when I realise that he said J's name.

"What?" He asks.

Remy leans back in his chair and smiles.
I see the exact moment that what he's said dawns on him. "Shit-"